


most things

by LiveLaughLovex



Series: Season 11 Codas [3]
Category: Blue Bloods (TV)
Genre: F/M, Post-Episode: s11e03 Atonement
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:40:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28171812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiveLaughLovex/pseuds/LiveLaughLovex
Summary: A conversation between Jamie and Eddie after Sunday dinner.
Relationships: Edit "Eddie" Janko/Jamie Reagan
Series: Season 11 Codas [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2042410
Comments: 11
Kudos: 18





	most things

**Author's Note:**

> Time solves most things. What time can't solve, you have to solve yourself. - Haruki Murakami 
> 
> (I'm about twelve hours late with this. In my defense, it's the DVR's fault, not mine. Okay, well, maybe it's a little mine. Still, I hope you enjoy!)

The ride home from Sunday dinner that evening passed in almost total silence. It was uncomfortable, per se, but there was something uncharacteristically melancholy about it that made the pit in Eddie’s stomach, which had begun developing when she’d first learned Joe wouldn’t be making it out for the meal, grow that much deeper. Jamie had been fine during dinner, but once they were away from the rest of the family, it became obvious that her husband was taking Joe’s absence hard. Truthfully, she was taking it pretty hard, too.

She hadn’t been lying at the table earlier that evening. Most people needed time away from family at some point in their lives. It was why she’d chosen Yale even after receiving her acceptance letter from Columbia. But the Reagans kept their distance in a much different way than most other people. Nicky’s career had taken her across the country, but she still called at least once a week. Jack did the same. The others – her husband and her brother-in-law and sister-in-law – rarely went the entire seven-day stretch between one family dinner and the next without seeing their father and grandfather.

The Reagans were close, even when they were distant. So, not seeing Joe at Sunday dinner? Not having the slightest idea where he was? _Of course_ that was eating at them. It was eating at _her_ , and she’d only recently started getting the hang of the whole “close family” thing. She only hoped that, wherever he’d ended up, he knew that they – _all of them_ – were a single phone call away, no matter what he needed.

“He’s gonna be okay, isn’t he?” Jamie asked quietly, pulling her from her reverie. They were sitting on the couch, where they’d settled after walking in the front door. They’d turned on Sunday night football, but neither of them were paying the television much mind, instead simply sitting there, lost in thoughts of all that’d happened since they last gathered at the Reagan family home.

“He’s gonna be fine, Jamie,” she reassured him, hoping she sounded more confident than she felt. She truly did think Joe was going to be fine, with time. It was the _time_ that concerned her. “Your dad’s right. It’s almost Christmas. He’s probably going to call, and then we’ll just… figure out where he wants to take it from there.”

“And what if he doesn’t want to take it _anywhere_ from there?” Jamie questioned, sounding just about as dejected as she’d ever heard him. “What if this is his way of getting distance, so it won’t hurt him as bad when he cuts us all out completely?”

“Jamie, the kid got into a fistfight with guys he’s worked with most of his career because they were bad-mouthing you and your family. _His family_. He wouldn’t have done that if he wanted to cut you all out.”

“You sure about that?”

She hummed in reply, shrugging slightly. “Well, I sure as hell didn’t get into any fistfights for my father when people started bad-mouthing him. Had a few drinks thrown in my face because of him. Maybe it was more than a few,” she allowed a moment later, narrowing her eyes in consideration. “But I always just let it go. I never fought back.”

“Why not?” her husband asked curiously.

“Because they were right. Everything they were saying was true. But even then, if I’d wanted to fight for him, argue against what they were saying about him, I could have. I just chose not to. It wasn’t worth it.”

“So, what you’re saying is…?”

“I’m _saying_ , if Joe’s fighting back, it’s because he thinks it’s worth it. It’s because he _cares_. He just needs a little _time_ , Jamie, that’s all. You’re not going to lose him. _We’re_ not going to lose him.”

He nodded once, then lifted his hand to rest atop her ankles where they were propped up in his lap. “I hope you’re right,” he murmured, his thumb stroking absentmindedly against her skin.

 _Yeah_ , Eddie thought to herself, following her husband’s grief-ridden gaze to the photograph of his lost older brother – the photograph that had been given a place of honor next to his mother’s and grandmother’s, that very first day they moved in – with a sad smile of her own. _I hope I’m right, too._

**Author's Note:**

> Look, I know I've always said Jamie's my favorite Reagan, but Joe's very quickly edging up there. That last scene of his with Frank just about made me start bawling. He's such a sweetheart, and he's gotten so much thrown at him, so quickly. I just hope he realizes, or at least is starting to realize, that he doesn't have to deal with all of it by himself.


End file.
